TV previews: The Killing III | The Hour | Crossfire Hurricane

Sofie Gr�b�l as Sara Lund with Nikolaj Lie Kaas in The Killing III. Below: Peter Capaldi is an eccentric new broom as news editor for The Hour

AIDAN SMITH

BIGGEST disappointment of the TV year? That when the BBC asked for all of the second instalment of Harry & Paul to be in Danish, Messrs Enfield and Whitehouse declined. Yes, I know this was one of their jokes, but was the request so improbable, given our obsession with fisherman’s jumpers, dank lighting and haunting three-note piano refrains signalling every plot twist?

Harry and Paul, or Plaul as he became, did give us a taster, from the smorgasbord (the word is actually Swedish but let’s be relaxed, indeed Danish, about such technicalities). The sketch was funny, especially when the subtitles read “The BBC is a uniquely funded public service broadcaster” and Plaul’s gutteral words sounded more like “The BBC is fooked up, huh?” So funny, in fact, that I was worried the comics might have spoiled The Killing III for me. Would I be too eager to spot lapses into self-parody? Would Sarah Lund suddenly seem clodhopping and camp like this was Murder, She Wrote? Not yet, I don’t think. But as we say hello again (“Hej”, pronounced “Hi”) we must also prepare to say goodbye (“Hej hej”). This will be her last ever case, and maybe that’s for the best.

We’re back in very familiar territory. There are the dark, dripping woods to the north of Copenhagen. There’s the missing girl, her parents and their shifting relationship, the half-spelled word, the secret chamber behind some chipboard. Oh, and of course, there’s the big, boxy parliament building and the politicos who – and this phrase is exactly the same in Danish – cannae keep it in the breeks, huh? These are classic Killing motifs, all from the debut season, and after most people seemed to agree that The Killing II wasn’t quite as fantastic as the first one, it’s as if creator Soren Sveistrup has resorted to his original template. Has he painted Lund into a corner? If so, it’s been done brilliantly, but there seems nowhere for her to go now but TV Immortality.

She won’t be heading straight there, unbending in her quest, untroubled by anything save the investigation. After 31 successive episodes of not answering her mother’s calls, the old bat came round to her office and did something it’s almost impossible to do to a Dane: embarrassed her. Now her son is avoiding her, and the act of discovering the lad’s girlfriend is pregnant caused Lund to miss a train, with fatal consequences for a shady prosecutor. The spectacular garroting seemed to challenge Silent Witness, ­Waking The Dead and all the other homegrown crime sagas which think themselves big and tough and gruesome: beat that, huh?

I know The Killing must end but I don’t want it to. I wish The Hour had never started but find it berserkly hypnotic. How did it go from being the British Mad Men to a silly espionage caper, stopping halfway to frolic in a rustic pile as if Downton Abbey had decreed all TV must do this now? The Hour doesn’t seem to have the nerve to be just about journalism, the BBC and the making of a current affairs programme. Little did it know, I suppose, that Newsnight would be a drama in itself this past while.

We’ve reached 1957 and Peter Capaldi has been drafted in as news editor. First day, he posted this on the staff noticeboard: “No more posh hoose swanking – Ed.” Underneath that: “No more complying with ruddy BBC edict that every minority and type be represented especially since the rule won’t come into force for another 50 years – Ed.” I wish, I wish. He was more concerned that the noticeboard’s spare pins were arranged in a neat pattern. “He fiddles with things,” muttered a colleague. Still, he does have an Air of Mystery. Let’s hope his character develops and that the A of M isn’t clouding the fact that the show doesn’t know what to do with him.

What else? Well, the spy stuff has been replaced by stuff about gangland Soho. The relationship stuff is still pretty soapy. There are still moments when it seems like we’re watching a home-porn retro interiors makeover programme, with some of the acting struggling to outperform the period lampshades and ashtrays. But Dominic West is still pouring drinks like Don Draper, just before going on air and straight afterwards, and ­Romola Garai is still pouring herself into Joan Harris’s cast-off dresses. So: not all bad.

OK, Crossfire Hurricane, a ­celebration of the Rolling Stones’ half century scrimped on their later years (the last 30, in fact) but the 1960s footage was terrific. For three years they never managed to finish a show because of all the fighting and fainting in the ­audience – “and these floods running between the seats,” ­recalled Bill Wyman. “Girls wet themselves when they get excited.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.